Dirty Sexy Candy: Serge Lutens El Attarine

By Tom There was a point in my life where the promise of a new Serge filled me anticipation. I would try to jump though hoops. That was the heady years when Muscs Kublai Khan, Tubereuse Criminelle up to the release of Borneo 1834 and Chene. The last ones, even ones that I enjoyed (even ones that I bought) didn't exactly make me want to jump so high or so far. Dear Uncle Serge, I thought had been to that well just a few times too many, and frankly another trip to the nut/fruit/wood file I didn't think I needed. Then Patty sent me a decant of this. She wrote that it was like "like hot, sweaty sex in the forest", while our own Marina states that it's "superbly comforting". On me there's definitely a punch in the opening: the immortelle, cumin and fenugreek are undeniably drrrty: it's that scene in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" in a bottle. You certainly don't want to dab this on just before a job interview or an audience with your clergyman. After the "get down, get down" opening calms it becomes that creamy skin scent on me that Marina writes of. Not fluffy like Louve or foodie-literal like 5 O'Clock Au Gingembre, it's a plush-smelling skin scent with a sly wink. This is what happens when I stop paying attention.. El Attarine is available at the Palais Royal, tiresomely whipped only in the EU (although if rumors on Basenotes are to be believed, that police will be changing. I can't wait) Image source, salons-shiseido.com.